杏吧原创

Let it glow, let it glow, let it snow鈥�

Christmas comes but once a year 鈥� and for some of us, so does a good snowfall. Here鈥檚 how to make sure you don鈥檛 miss it

鈥淚 love building snowmen, but the neighbourhood kids snatch up every flake for their snowball arsenal,鈥� writes Jack F. 鈥淢y wife gives me an icy stare if I keep flicking to the weather channel, and I can鈥檛 stay glued to the window when we鈥檙e entertaining relatives. How can I make sure I don鈥檛 miss out?鈥�

I may be dreaming of a white Christmas, but I鈥檓 not changing out of my PJs unless the odds of a snowman are favourable. But what if I could deck my hall with a personalised snow predictor? It鈥檚 time to hack the Christmas tree鈥�

I grabbed a pack of clear baubles and sprinkled in some glitter and polystyrene beads. This does a good impression of snow, and I slapped on some adhesive snowflakes for good measure. LEDs slipped into the top of each bring real sparkle, and trailing wires can be cunningly disguised with tinsel.

Now for the clever part 鈥� connecting the baubles to my Adafruit Feather, a circuit board that can talk to my home Wi-Fi. I programmed it to contact the Dark Sky weather service, which collates data from different sources to give a forecast for your GPS location 鈥� or the local tobogganing hill鈥檚. To build excitement, the lights function like a progress bar 鈥� each extra tier illuminates as the chance of snow increases.

When the snow starts falling, my baubles send flurries of light cascading down the tree, simulating a mini blizzard. The tree updates every minute, so you can tell whether it鈥檚 just a sprinkle or something more. In my flat, we鈥檝e agreed we won鈥檛 brave the elements for anything less than 10 minutes of continuous snow.

The snow tracker should be an easy project even after a couple of sherries, although my prototype had me dashing out in my snow boots to blue skies 鈥� it thought I was in Iceland.

You can also connect the lights to Google鈥檚 open source Santa Tracker, which plots St Nick鈥檚 course on Christmas Eve. Get to sleep before the top bauble illuminates or he鈥檒l skip your house. Now there鈥檚 no need to keep checking weather apps, Jack. But you might want a second set of lights for the tree 鈥� just in case it鈥檚 a mild year.

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